~~~~~
2. Guest Speaker 2008!
Melinda Ferguson, author of the shocking best-selling memoir,
Melinda is also the Features Editor for True Love Magazine
Date: 30 January 2008
Time: 18:00
Venue: TBC
RSVP: info@thewriteco.co.za or call Wiida 011 706-4021
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3. Coming up in Writing
Creative Writing Courses & Workshops
Writers Write (4 weeks):
Saturday Mornings: 08.30 – 12.30 / 26 January 2008
Tuesday & Thursday Mornings: 09:00 – 11:00 / 22 January 2008
Monday & Wednesday Evenings: 17:30 – 19:30 / 21 January 2008
Writers Write 2
Tuesday & Thursday Evenings: 17:30 – 19:30 / 22 January 2008
Write Non-Fiction
Saturday Mornings: 08:30 - 12:30 / 2 February
Skrywers Skryf
Saturday Mornings: 08:30 - 12:30 / 26 January
Romancing the Dollar
Saturday 9 February: 08:30 - 14:30
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Two Hour Sessions – It’s worth subscribing!
~~~~~
4. How to Become a Subscriber
Please click here for a subscription form
~~~~~
5. Reviews
Top 3 Reads for 2007 Staff & dedicated reviewers' choices
Amanda Patterson
Paint it Black by Janet Fitch (End 2006)
Shark Music by Carol O Connell
Skin Privilege by Karen Slaughter
Exit Music by Ian Rankin
Susan Greenhalgh
TrueStory: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa by Michael Finkel
Mom Interrupted by Debbie Adlington
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Morne Malan
Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk
Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding (I only read it last year!)
Light in August by William Faulkner (a classic)
Laura Boon
The Fox and The flies by Charles van Onselen
Star of the Morning by Pamela Jooste
The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris
Anthony Ehlers
Walking on Eggshells by G E de Villiers
The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown,
Drop Dead Beautiful by Jackie Collins
Wiida Hamman
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
The Infinite Wisdom of Harriet Rose by Diana Janney
Godiva by Nerys Jones
Paula Marais
The Woman in the Fifth by Douglas Kennedy,
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
Tanya van Eyk
The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, The Lords of the North - Trilogy by Bernard Cornwall
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin
House of Stone by Christina Lamb
Jackie Kelly
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
The Native Commissioner by Shaun Johnson
The Price of Water in Finistčre by Bodil Malmsten
Helen Schlebusch
Heavyweight section:
A thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Coconut by Kopano Matlwa
Lighter reading list:
The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
Amanda Blankfield
The Pursuit of Happyness - Chris Gardner
Anybody Out There by Marian Keyes
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Priscilla Holmes
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marish Pessel
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas
Paddy McAllister
Garden of my Ancestors by Bridget Hilton-Barber,
Die for Me by Karen Rose
Christopher Dean
Renegade's Magic by Robin Hobb
Making Money by Terry Pratchett
Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
Penny Castle
The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery
Portrait with Keyes by Ivan Vladislavic
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Rod Patterson
Spud: The Madness Continues by John van de Ruit
Dee Andrew
The Boy in Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards
Remember Me? by Mary Monaghan
Karen Moss
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Sandi Mackenzie
Winter in Madrid by C J Samson
Torn by Kimon Neophyte
Ultimate Sacrifice by Lamor Waldron
Sandy Goulding
Like the Flowing River by Paulo Coehlo
My Dearest Friend by Nancy Thayer
Wedding In December by Anita Shreve
Christine Weston
Spud: the madness continues, by John van de Ruit
The Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
~~~~~
Our reviewers rate books from 1 – 5
1 - For use as a doorstop only
2 - Keep for publishers' & booksellers' strikes
3 - A great holiday read
4 - You'll remember this with enthusiasm a month later
5 – Unforgettable
The Careful Use of Compliments (The Sunday Philosophy Club) by Alexander McCall Smith (Little & Brown) R140, 00
Isabel Dalhousie is back.
She has ’stolen’ her niece’s estranged lover and they have a baby. She is 40, he is 12 years younger than she is. As always, Mr McCall Smith explores philosophy. And Kindness and human motivations, desires and feelings. I like Isabel. I like philosophy. Put them together and you have a novel filled with charm.
Isabel collects paintings. She tracks the suicide of one of her favourite artists off Jura. If you like art and Scotland, you’ll like this one too. My one gripe, for the attention of the author - please stop head-hopping. It’s driving me crazy. I like being in one person’s head in every scene.
Enjoyable and gently thought provoking.
Amanda Patterson
Rating: 4/5
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Bloomsbury) R184 ISBN: 9780747882977
A Tour de Force by the author of the multi-million selling Kite Runner.
High expectations awaited Hosseini’s second novel and I think he has surpassed his earlier achievement. The novel spans three decades of Afghanistan’s tumultuous history. From the Soviet invasion, the resistance of the Mujahideen and the rule of the Taliban to the American invasion and the installation of a shaky democracy.
Mirrored against this backdrop are the lives of two women, the embittered Mariam and the beautiful Laila. Cloistered behind walls, hidden behind veils, they suffer tremendous abuse at the hands of brutal men and a sometimes-cruel society. Out of a tale of suffering and loss come acts of remarkable bravery and self-sacrifice.
When lives are torn apart by circumstances and war the essence of family is so much more than a mere blood connection. My best book of 2007. Highly Recommended.
Reviewer: Helen Schlebusch
5/5
Written in Bone by Simon Beckett (Bantam Press) ISBN 978-0-593-05525-0 R199, 00
A grisly death on a remote Hebridean island. At first glance, a textbook case of spontaneous human combustion!
A forensic anthropologist with uncanny powers of deduction. A powerful storm that cuts off communication with the outside world.
The ingredients for a truly masterful thriller that does not let go from the start.
“Tell me who you are,” muses David Hunter as he studies the remains of the charred skull. It does not take him long to work out that this was no accidental death. In as many days, the death toll mounts and the race to find the killer is on.
There are enough suspects: An array of hostile locals. And the fashionable ‘bęte noir’, an arrogant South African!
The biting chill of the Scottish winter permeates every page. The twists and turns are as unexpected and deadly as the harsh terrain.
Take it to bed with a hot water bottle. It’s a spine chiller!
Jackie Kelly
4.5/5
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold (Picador) ISBN: 9780330451376
Why do writers who think of themselves as literary novelists write like this?
Helen Knightly kills her mother in the first chapter of this tedious tome. This is as good as this book gets. Sebold has forgotten one of the golden rules of fiction writing. The reader has to care about the hero or anti-hero. Sebold fails to give Helen even one redeeming quality.
Why would I carry on reading this? Helen is a cold character who fails to elicit any positive or negative feelings. I didn't care why she killed her mother. I didn't care about her father who killed himself, or her relationship with her daughters.
The book is disjointed and difficult to read. Sebold should also know that obscurity is an imposition. Readers have magazines, the internet, films and television to entertain them. If publishers allow nonsense like this to be printed readers will flock to the remotely controlled options every time.
Amanda Patterson
0.5 /5 (Too thin to be a doorstop, .5 for the pretty cover)
The Screenwriter’s Handbook by Barry Turner (MacMillan) ISBN 978-0-230-01404-6 (R265.00)
You’ve written a screenplay. It could be the next Thelma & Louise, Good Will Hunting or Tstosi. Great - but how do you sell it?
This book is your bible to breaking into the world of movies and television. The Screenwriter’s Handbook is crammed with thousands of useful resources – from production companies to agents. It’s not a dry reference guide – it’s loaded with brilliant articles written by industry insiders to motivate, inspire and guide. It will help the aspirant screen scribe avoid the pitfalls of working with a partner, negotiating contracts, copyright and payment.
Practical, easy to read, straightforward, this resource should take pride of place on your work desk, along with black coffee, Marlboro Lights and sharp pencils. Get it today. You could be rehearsing your acceptance speech for Best Original Screenplay at next year’s Oscars.
Get a head start with The Write Co’s screenwriting course.
Reviewer: Anthony Ehlers
Rating: 4/5
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Penguin) R113 EAN: 9780141027289
Kiran Desai won the 2006 Man Booker prize for The Inheritance of Loss.
This exquisite book has descriptions that make you gasp. She uses words that demand that you savour and linger over them. Do not read this in a hurry! From the foothills of the Himalayas to the kitchen basements of New York, we follow the lives of an assortment of idiosyncratic characters.
A retired judge lives with his orphaned granddaughter and his loyal cook in a rambling house. Biju is an illegal immigrant in America. Relics from a bygone colonial past are juxtaposed against patriots and new world aspirants. Old prejudices of race and class lie barely concealed, in a modern India.
Desai uses wry humour and incisive observations to weave a story that is original and compelling. An undercurrent of despair and a fatalistic acceptance of events add to the impending sense of tragedy. Highly recommended.
Reviewer: Helen Schlebusch
5/5
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More reviews
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6. Interviews
Mornés short story, Jason’s Kiss was included in the African Pens 2007 Anthology
He won The Sanlam/Insig Best Debut Novel 2007 Competition with his entry, Suiderkruis (Tafelberg)
His first English novel, Bush Baby, has been taken to London by his agent.
He also:
· appraises manuscripts for The Write Co
· facilitates Writers Write 1 & 2
· facilitates Skrywers Skryf (translated by himself)
· facilitates our Editing Edge workshop
· co-ordinates our Short Story Competition & he is one of the judges
Morne does all of this whilst he is studying for his masters in English Literature!
Oh, and he writes books too.
(Don't tell me you don't have time to write a book - Amanda Patterson)
~~~~~
Author: Morné Malan
Date: 06 January 2008
Place: Lonehill
Book: Jason’s Kiss (Short story in African Pens)
Date of Birth: 3 September 1974
Sun Sign: Virgo
~~~~~
1. Who is your favourite hero of fiction?
Bracken in Duncton Wood
2. What is your most treasured possession?
My manuscripts. I have back-ups on disks, extra hard drives, with friends and on hard copy.
3. Which living person do you most dislike?
I really try not to focus on them, but let me put it this way: the guy who invented Facebook is not high on my Christmas card list.
4. What is your greatest fear?
Besides losing a loved one, I’d say losing the ability to write, either physically or mentally.
5. Who or what has been the greatest love of your life?
Richard, my partner of 11 years.
6. What is your greatest regret?
Not taking Art, History and an African language at school. Writers need it more than they think.
7. If you could choose to be a character in a book, who would it be?
Harry Potter.
8. Which book have you read the most in your lifetime?
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner and Duncton Wood by William Horwood.
9. What is your favourite journey?
The perilous trail to the fires of Mordor with Frodo Baggins; the dusty gravel road through Yoknapatawpha county to a Jefferson cemetery with the Bundren clan; and the ever-narrowing, deceptive river that meanders into the heart of darkness with Charles Marlow.
10. Cats or Dogs? Which do you prefer?
Dogs. You can’t train generosity of spirit.
11. What quality do you most admire in a woman?
Multiplicity and adaptability.
12. Which book that you’ve written is your favourite?
Always the one I’m about to write. But so far, Suiderkruis.
13. What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Firstly, write because you love it. No other reason on its own will get you through 300-400 pages. Secondly, DON’T READ BACK until you have a first draft. Thirdly, do Writers Write, even if you think you’re good enough.
14. What are your favourite names?
Lilly for a child.
Martha for a mother.
Alex for a male protagonist.
Lisa or Kate for a female protagonist.
No idea why.
15. What do you do as a hobby?
Write (it’s not a career just yet) and read. Loooootsa reading. Oh yes, and I also play Dungeons and Dragons with friends.
16. What are your top 3 books?
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner.
Duncton Wood by William Horwood
Fiela se Kind by Dalene Mathee
Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk
17. Where do you get your greatest ideas for writing?
Life.
Interviewer & Intro Writer: Amanda Patterson
(We will forgive this author for not being able to count in questions 8 & 16, given his many, many, many other talents)
More 2007 Interviews
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7. The Star Struck Writer
Capricorn (22 December - 19 January)
"I am told that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it."
J R R Tolkien, born 3 January
December
22: Sara Coleridge
24: Mary Higgins Clark
26: Henry Miller
30: Rudyard Kipling
January
1 : E M Foster
J D Salinger
2 : Isaac Asimov
3 : JRR Tolkien
5 : Umberto Eco
6 : EL Doctorow
Khalil Gibran
Carl Sandburg
Nicci Stewart
8: Wilkie Collins
Stephen Hawking
9: Simone de Beauvoir
10: Robinson Jeffers
11: Alan Paton
Paula Marais
12: Jack London
Walter Mosley
13: Jay McInerny
14: Yukio Mishima
Wiida Hamman
16: Susan Sontag
17: Benjamin Franklin
Anne Bronte
18: AA Milne
19: Edgar Allan Poe
20: Joy Adamson
22: Lord Byron
24: Edith Wharton
Key Phrase: “I control”
Wiida Hamman (GM), understands this one,
as does Paula Marais, our PR specialist,
and Nicci Stewart, PR and project management.
Capricorn is the 10th sign of the Zodiac.
Cardinal earth, ruled by Saturn, feminine, negative
Colour: Bottle green, Ebony
Gems: All black or ash coloured minerals
Capricorn is the most ambitious sign of the zodiac.
These earthy authors are serious contenders to win the top awards in the craft of fiction writing.
Their works are grounded in research and perfected with painstaking attention to detail. J R R Tolkien, Rudyard Kipling and Alan Paton are perfect examples.
Capricorns are disciplined, organised, structured and persistent. They are also cynical, pessimistic, critical and resentful. It’s a tough two sides to the coin of this sun sign.
It’s lonely being a mountain goat but worth remembering that he’s the only one who makes it to the top of the hill.
These writers tend to stick to serious matters even if they are cloaked in fantasy. As a cardinal sign, Capricorns have incredible impetus with groundbreaking ideas. Seeing it through and delegating tedious work can be a problem for these people.
Amanda Patterson ©
Writing for Star Signs
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8. The Write Co Competitions for Subscribers
Monthly ‘What’s on your mind?’ Competition
Write 400 words and win!
Prize: 2 Books from The Write Co and Publication on our web site, in our newsletter and in Off the Cuff.
Conditions: 1 Entry per Person, 400 words.
Closing date: 25th of every month
To enter: Send entries to info@thewriteco.co.za
December Winner: Jill Schmidt
Complex Women in the West
I visited Pleasantville, RSA.
Actually, I visited two Pleasantvilles.
One is called Featherbrooke and it’s near Krugersdorp, the other is called Eagle Canyon, on the way to Krugersdorp. Both are on the West Rand.
Today I’m discussing Feather, as the residents call it, although everything I say applies to both.
It has its own flag. Really. It even has stars and stripes. They also have the big three, according to the sign outside. These, for you lesser mortals who haven’t seen the Promised Land, are peace, tranquillity & safety. Not to be sneezed at in crime-ridden Gauteng.
No sirree.
There’s a clubhouse and a guardhouse and claster (sic) house developments on the estate. It also has its own building site en suite. There are only 750 or so ‘exclusive’ sites, yet to be developed.
They even have a casino en-suite. A building so awful, it’s perfectly positioned.
I lived in fear the whole time I was there.
What if I lived here?
I’d atrophy like the rest of the wives and mothers on the estate. An hour in their company is like acting in an episode of The Stepford Wives. They all stay at home (AKA shopping and gymming) while their (two) underpaid maids clean their shiny new houses, which all have pillars at their doors. A subliminal wish for a tertiary education?
And talking of shopping. I’ve visited the malls out West and I can assure you they aren’t the best. This is reflected in the interior decor of most of the homes I had to see.
If anyone thought that Sandton was the domain of the plastic surgeon’s scalpel, think again. These women have the just-botoxed, nipped and tucked, lasered and lipoed look by the age of 32. They are savagely manicured and pedicured, sun-bedded and tinted, tackily tattooed and totally pierced. They also dress like refugees from a cheap Karl Lagerfeld dream.
Don’t get a fright when you see the older dolls trotting along bricked paths in the morning. They tend to favour little pink outfits with matching takkies. They’re trying to keep up with their daughters in their quest to defeat the ageing process without benefit of a brain.
And whether you’re young or old or bright??? Or bold, you have to smoke. I’m not sure why. No one out there seems to know either.
This is a strange place. It’s all about new money. The kind that comes without degrees. It shows in the mansions that mushroom on land that will never meet the price their dreams are built on. If these men and their Barbie dolls were savvier, they would build the same houses 30km to the east and make 10 times the profit.
Their children would also be able to attend decent schools. However, that doesn’t seem to be a priority here. Any new establishment with a fancy sounding name will do as their choice of ‘private’ school. Most of the children’s parents never finished matric so they wouldn’t know the difference. All I received were blank looks when I asked how they managed to teach the children without textbooks. Clearwater, Westgate and Key West do not have proper bookshops.
Now I know why.
There’s access to the Botanical Gardens. Like that’s a selling point for these dolls in 70’s stilettos and their offspring. I think it makes the dads feel better as they drive off to make the rands that allow this monstrosity to grow.
Featherbrooke News is enough to make a girl’s stomach curl. There are endless photographs of estate agents, staff members, and ‘Feather’ organisations. Does Daisy De Melker have relatives out here? You have ‘news’ for moms and tots, for the whole fan-damily and I thought I was suffocating.
Don’t think that these estates are similar to Dainfern or Kyalami Estates or even Fourways Gardens. Those people have houses that are probably just as overdone – although that’s debatable, but at least there, they know they’re buying status.
I don’t know what one would gain from owning a resident’s card to Featherbrooke. If you want to play, the part you have to get the location correct and this one just doesn’t come up to scratch.
Residency there is a highly sought after commodity in those parts.
Individuality is not important.
The irony, and impossibility, of buying exclusivity for thousands of stands eludes the residents.
The west is another country.
Keep the complex men and women in the North where they belong, and let the land out here breathe.
~~~~~
Monthly Poetry Competition
January’s theme is The Sound of Paper
Prize: A case of Leopard's Leap Wines
Conditions:
1. Only 1 poem per month per subscriber is allowed.
2. The poem must not be longer than 30 lines.
3. The poem must be about the given topic.
4. If you are not a subscriber please pay an entrance fee of R50, 00 per entry.
Closing date: 30 January 2007
To enter: Send entries to amanda@thewriteco.co.za
~~~~~
The winner for Written in Bone (Haiku): Peter Cronshaw
1st Place: Dinosaur by Peter Cronshaw
Mysterious worlds
Of dinosaur kings and queens
Now written in bone
2nd Place: Written in bone by Barry Finegan
A wise quill knows naught
but the ancient mind seeded
in the soul of now
3rd Place: written in the bone by Sue Woodward
it is written in the bone
that light will fall on Ramses face
and Judas will kiss the cheek
~~~~~
Please choose your winner for December: Stolen Holidays and send the poets name in the subject line to amanda@thewriteco.co.za
~~~~~
Rick Thinks?
My Granny was Right!
What do you think?
~~~~~
9. Classified
Need custom made bookshelves / shelves?
Contact Rod 083 750-6854 or mail colleenrw@telkomsa.net
~~~~~
Do you want to work in a bookshop?
Reader's Paradise Bookstore in Gardens, Cape Town is looking for part time staff of all ages
Call Thomas: 021 424 4335
~~~~~
10. Students Writing
From Writers Write Description Module
The God of Small Things Exercise
Laziness is…
- A cat on a winter roof.
- The Costa del Sol.
- The teatime clock at Home Affairs.
Ecstasy is…
- A hot mineral spring on a winter’s day.
- An Indian head massage while I read Kahlil Gibran.
Loneliness is…
- A mug of Horlics at 3am.
- The page on which I wrote my mother’s epitaph.
Envy is…
- A bodybuilding competition.
- A private school parking lot.
Bitterness is…
- A returned engagement ring.
- Another HR rejection letter bearing the words ‘Affirmative Action’.
Pleasure is…
- A bread bake day kitchen.
- Loud, Vangelis headphones.
Lust is…
- A beautiful woman cello solo.
- French kn-ckers and a crop top.
Love is…
- My child’s hug at bedtime.
- Rose petals and incense in the bathroom.
Joy is…
- My Christmas day hat.
- Art, baroque and Merlot in the park.
From Friday Poetry Sessions:
Jackie Kelly
When…....., I remember
Acting as if nothing had happened
Boasting to myself I could handle it
Crying in dark corners
Doing things in neutral
Edging towards a breakdown
Feeling like there was no tomorrow
Going nowhere fast
Hating myself for getting into it
Isolated and alone
Jilted by default
Killing myself with self-pity
Loving but loathing
Missing the moments
Nothing to replace with
Pleading for a respite
Quietly shrinking into nothing
Raging inside but not out
Showing the world I was whole
Trying to keep it together
Up to my eyes in introspection
Veering towards a vertical drop
Wanting you so
X Those kisses in limbo
Yet I was saved
~~~~~
Johannesburg:
Tel: 011 706-4021
Fax: 011 252-8890
NLA, Suite D, Block D, Coachman’s Crossing Office Park, Brian Road, Off Peter Place, Bryanston, Sandton
Cape Town:
Tel: 021 462 7580
Fax: 086 6173046
11C, Eleven on Buiten, 11 Buitensingel Street, Gardens, Cape Town, 8018
